The Spirit of Beauty Exhibition, Tokyo, 2009

The Spirit of Beauty Exhibition at the Mori Arts Cener Gallery, Tokyo, 2009

From October 31, 2009 to January 17, 2010, the Mori Arts Center Gallery hosted “The Spirit of Beauty”: a prestigious retrospective spanning over 100 years of creations by the Maison of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Named after the famous fairy clip, “The Spirit of Beauty” included jewels, timepieces, fashion accessories, and objets d’art. In all, visitors were able to admire over two hundred and fifty pieces selected from the Maison’s Private Collection, as well as from large private collections in France and overseas.

This exquisite ensemble was orchestrated by Patrick Jouin, whose original set design transformed the 1,000 square meters of the Mori Arts Center Gallery into a dream-like landscape. Watched over by protective fairies, it was organized around four themes: The Spirit of Nature, The Spirit of Elegance, The Spirit of Adventure, and Incarnations.

The exhibition offered a perfect opportunity to discover the Maison’s savoir-faire, the magic of exceptional gems, and the genius of several generations of jewelers, as well as to delve into the thousand and one stories belonging to each jewel, which make up the history of Van Cleef & Arpels.